In honor of this experiment reaching 400 laughs at Club-MST3k, I think this movie deserves an unriffed viewing. 400 laughs makes it the most laughed episode at the club, far and away the most laughed. I think I would place the episode in my top 50, but probably not my top 25.

Reb (David Ryder) Brown and Cissy (Dr. Lea Jansen) Cameron have been married since 1979.

The credits remind me of the visual from the FVI films the SOL watched, but these are on purpose.

I don’t understand why this movie is ‘introducing’ Cissy Cameron, she has IMDB credits going back to 1971. She was a regular in a Ted Knight sitcom, back when that meant something. How can you introduce someone with 17 years of work behind her?

Battlestar Galactica of 1978 and 1980. I saw both series, I saw the movie in the theaters. But I can’t say I was a big fan of it. I much preferred Buck Rogers for my late 1970’s Sci-Fi. Had no interest in the more recent series.

I don’t know much about South African cinema in the late 1980’s, but this looks more like a ‘fan film’ than a professional job. A high quality fan film, but it doesn’t even reach TV movie quality in look.

If these were amateurs, I would praise the creativity of setting up the locations. An office as the bridge? Generic Industrial building (with windows) as the bowels of the ship? There had to be better choices, right?

Workout leotards and modified fast food uniforms it what the clothes look like. Ed Wood would be proud.

The SOL cut out a huge chunk of Battlestar Galactica footage, and related ‘looking very concerned about the battle’ shots of the crew.

Kalgan is not a very subtle villain. I would think there would be some kind of uproar about all the people going missing.

Of the hundreds and hundreds of plot holes and questions raised, and God knows every frame of this film raises new questions, this is the series which really bugs me: Where was the Professor coming from? Was he and Ryder just out cruising through space? Were they investigating a possible planet to colonize? And they clearly know there are habitable planets out there, the Bellarians had to come from somewhere, right? You get started on these, and it just opens up dozens more. And these are the questions the first 10 minutes inspire!

John Phillip Law is really acting hard. You can just tell.

The Corona Borealis is an actual constellation, also known as the Northern Crown. So the Southern Sun is flying to the Northern Crown. Maybe that’s symbolism of some sort.

And they are not even consistent about how they use the Battlestar footage. In the first scenes, it was moving backwards. Now it is moving forward.

I know Kalgan is the ‘villain’ of the piece, but is he really? He wants to get everyone off the ship and on to a planet. I can’t say I approve of his methods, but Commander Jansen (Cameron Mitchell) might be wrong on this on.

Many of the kills in this movie are based on the fact no one seems to react to shots fired and bodies dropping to the floor.

And isn’t his a fight to the death kind of thing for the mutineers? I mean where can they go after rising up against the Commander? They are still just stuck on a space, you know what, no more questions.

The SOL cut the Engineer flailing around the floor on fire. He burns up real good in the full cut.

I don’t think they missed a cliché in this movie. It is like they had a checklist.

Watchability: 3 of 5. I’ve changed my mind a dozen times on this already. What blows my mind is how much the SOL crew didn’t go after in this movie. When I say this movie makes me think of Ed Wood, that is a good thing.

Missing the Riffs: 3 of 5. It is one of those movies that doesn’t need the SOL to be enjoyable. Of course, your mileage may vary.

“The thing that impresses me most is the complete and utter silence. You can almost hear it.”

Mole People, one of the very lessor Universal monsters. And John Agar, the biggest monster of them all.

Started off with the trailer, pretty honest and straight forward about what your ticket was getting you.

Virgil Vogel’s middle initial is, sadly, a W.

I love when these sci-fi movies slip in these ‘teaching moments.” Granted the approach isn’t usually this blunt. Dr. Frank (the downer professor) Baxter had quite a TV career (7 Emmy Awards for one of his series) and was the host of those old Bell Lab films of some of our youths.

It is so hard to watch anything with Hugh Beaumont and not think of Ward Cleaver.

The ‘load’, Nestor Paiva has nearly 300(!) IMBD credits. He appeared in some Rocky Jones, Space Ranger Episodes, but not the ones aired on MST3K.

Nazar (Rodd Redwing) the guide was a noted quick gun expert and worked as a gun coach in Hollywood for decades.

Thankfully the SOL cut out a good bit of avalanche and mountain climbing footage.

Did you know music supervisor Joseph Gershenson was the head of music at Universal Studios? His 4 MST3K Credits might be tops for a non-actor/director.

The reveal of the Sumerian village could have been handled better.

How did Agar ever become a leading man?

Give the quality of the skeletons found in the ‘cell’ by our intrepid crew, the disappointing costumes on the Mole People are harder to stand. I get the need for the stock footage for the mountain misadventures, but give the Mole People more than a top and sweat pants. The Mattes and models buildings (which had more screen time than the SOL allowed) are decent looking. We also get a glimpse of the river Hugh references in a great shot of the temple area.

I could see Shatner playing the John Agar role, especially with the ‘what is love’ talk he has with Adele.

The sacrifice dance is one of the worst in MST3K history. I’d rather watch Mike Nelson, in that tiny thong, shaking his thang.

John Agar, enabler of genocide. You don’t think the Mole People stopped the slaughter at the temple? There is a whole society for them to overrun in the caverns.

If the Mole People can burrow into the ground, why did they just stick around to be enslaved?

Watchability: 4 of 5. Flawed, but there is a pretty good core of actors with Beaumont, Napier and Paiva to carry the material. Even Agar can’t ruin this one.

Missing the Riffs: 3 of 5. A longtime favorite episode, but there is enough going on in the story to almost make me forget the SOL.

I first heard about this movie via The Book of List edited by Irving Wallace et al. In the list of worst movies, this one, Plan 9 and Robot Monster to me had to be the worst of the worst. Plan 9 and Robot Monster I already knew, so Party Beach had to be something great-bad as well. Right? Wrong.

It was one of the most disappointing bad movies I’ve ever seen. As a result of the failure to live down to its billing, it has become one of my favorite episodes. It isn’t so much bad as annoying. The Del-Aires have that mugging Buddy Holly wannabe I wish was on the plane instead. (note: here is a webpage with an interview with said Buddy Holly wannabe, http://www.badmovieplanet.com/3btheater/tributes/delaires/delairesindex.html) The ‘friendly thin men’ don’t belong on a beach with that many girls. The motorcycle gang would have been beaten up by the Von Zipper gang. The oddly placed moral lessons from Dr. Gavin and Eulabelle just don’t fit. The whole lack of urgency over the killings or in getting the sodium bugs the hell out of me.

More than anything, it is the lack of commitment which bothers me. The first 20 minutes hint at a promising concept-I love the AIP Beach Movie-even if the humor falls flat. Then it devolves into what would be that era’s equivalent of gore (Tina, the slumber party, and the car girls deaths are cut short for the SOL. Mostly it involved smearing chocolate syrup all over the women) somehow without evolving any other part of the plot.

The “romance” between Elaine and Hank is so flat and uninspired. I am glad these two dreadfully dull and boring people found each other. No one else will have to be poisoned by their empty personalities. There is your real monsters, boring people. At the dance (“Summer Love”) there is a shot of a kiss, but not between Elaine and Hank. Random people kissing was more interesting than a kiss between our main characters.

Why are girls still going to the beach? Why are they still hanging out by water? Don’t they know a monster is about? Why would sodium effect a salt water creature?

The last 20 minutes is probably the least urgent chase in movie history. Riveting phone call action!

Watchability: 1 of 5. Disappointing and disjointed. If they had picked a lane and stuck with it, you might have had something. They couldn’t figure out if it was parody, horror, gore or suspense. Bad, but not in the way I wanted it to be all those years ago.

Missing the Riffs: 1 of 5. I would not recommend watching without the SOL crew.

I decided to watch the whole creature trilogy. The Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of my favorite 50’s Sci-Fi/Horror films, Revenge is a staple of my MST3K rotation, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen The Creature Walks Among Us.

I’ve always liked the Gill-man as a ‘monster’ because it is somewhat in the realm of possibility. My recent discovery of River Monsters has only reinforced that belief. I don’t think it would look that manlike in real life, but the Amazon does seem like it could house an evolutionary cul-de-sac.

John Agar. Was he really an ass or did he just play one really well? I just don’t see the appeal he would have. He’s a homeless man’s John Wayne. If you ask me who/what drives me crazy in B-movies/Low Budget/Cult (BLC’s from here on out) it isn’t the Cor-man, it isn’t Coleman Francis, it isn’t Bela, it is John Agar. And if it wasn’t for MST3K, I’d probably never watch any of his movies (with the exception of Tarantula, I do like that movie)

The “love triangle” is so tacked on and so unnecessary. They just can’t quite commit to the smart pretty girl in this movie. They don’t seem to get science or how scientist work or how to make any man appealing, why should I think they would be able to create a decent smart female character. That’s good ol’ fashion sexism! I liked Kay from the first movie better.

The drop off in quality from the first to second film is really noticeable. As a standard monster movie, free of first movie, it might not seem as low quality. Tough to follow a classic. It is all in the writing. There is an idea, but it is not thought out completely. Since Revenge was supposed to save the 3-D format (it was the last 3-D film in the 50’s) a rush job on the story can be somewhat forgiven.

I’m glad they cut out the beach chat scene. The dog knows you are a creepy guy John. And Agar’s rival (not the dog) is killed by the Gill-man when he was pulled into the tank. So Gill-man was just acing out the competition. The cuts here at least don’t impact the plot as much as some I’ve seen. Mostly the creepy romance is lost. Because in the 1950s, even Gill-men peep.

It is a great crowd-panics-and-runs scene when the Gill-man escapes. Up there with The Blob theater scene.

The scene where the Creature takes Helen at the dance club (50’s style) is the only scene from the movie I remember from my childhood viewings.

Watchablilty. 2 of 5. I just can’t get past John Agar and how bad it looks next to the first film. If I didn’t have my Agar-hate, I’d might go 3.